1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional image making apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a three-dimensional image making apparatus for printing an object image and for forming a relief configuration of the object image on a printing material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Apparatuses and methods for measuring and reproducing three-dimensional objects are well known. Examples of such apparatuses and methods include auto-focussing devices (AF device), three-coordinate measuring machines, holographic imaging devices, and stereo photography.
An AF device is able to measure an object distance automatically and enables a camera to focus on a film surface automatically. Generally, AF devices measure the object distance for a typical single point on a three-dimensional object. In the strict sense, AF devices do not reproduce three-dimensional images of objects. Although some AF device measure object distances for several points on an object, the fundamental idea of auto-focusing art is to measure the object distance for a single point on an object.
Three-coordinate measuring machines of contact measurement type can measure x, y and z coordinate positions at every point on an object. These machines typically use a contact-type micrometer. A three-coordinate measuring machine of contact measurement type traces the surface of an object with the contact-type micrometer and inputs x, y and z coordinate data into a computer. From the coordinate data, a three-dimensional image may be displayed on some sort of display device.
However, generally, tracing the surface of an object with a contact-type micrometer must be performed manually because objects can have various shapes and auto tracing of such objects is difficult. Furthermore, in order to measure a three-dimensional object precisely with a three-coordinate measuring machine, it is necessary to trace the entire object surface in detail.
A holographic imaging device can form a three-dimensional image of an object. Holographic imaging devices use a coherent light source of which luminous flux is divided into two steams of luminous flux. One stream of luminous flux is applied to the object to be imaged and is reflected from the object as object waves. The second stream of luminous flux is used as a reference light for holography. By interfering these two streams of luminous flux, interference fringes are generated. The interference fringes can be recorded as a hologram on a high-resolution photographic material such as a photographic plate.
The hologram recorded on the photographic plate functions as a kind of diffraction grating. When the reference light is applied to the hologram, object waves are reproduced, resulting in a three-dimensional object image as if the object actually exists within the hologram. Thus, the holographic imaging device can record three-dimensional information directly because the hologram itself includes three-dimensional data. However, it is another matter whether three-dimensional data in the hologram is usable or practical.
The above-mentioned conventional apparatuses for measuring three-dimensional objects are not without their problems. For example, AF devices and three-coordinate measuring machines process three-dimensional information with a computer and display three-dimensional images on a device such as a monitor display. A three-dimensional image displayed on a monitor display is expressed as a perspective drawing that is viewed from a specific direction or as a drawing depicted in contour lines of the object displayed. However, the perspective drawing or the drawing depicted in contour lines is not strictly a three-dimensional drawing, but instead is a two-dimensional drawing only similar to a three-dimensional image. The perspective drawing or the drawing depicted in contour lines does not recreate reality of a three-dimensional object. And, a second problem with using a monitor display to display the image is that monitor displays lack portability.
A holographic recording medium, such as a photographic plate, does have portability. However, holography also has some problems. For example, when a hologram is recorded onto a photographic plate, any object movement whatsoever, no matter how slight, will reduce the quality of the recorded image significantly. Furthermore, holography is not very practical because reproducing a holographic image is conditioned on the light source at the time of reproduction, and without a proper light source, reproduction will be poor. Also, a holographic image is the same size as the object that it was based upon. Moreover, reproducing an image in color causes difficulty in the manufacturing and reproduction of holograms.
Meanwhile, conventional stereo photography, which has been used since the days of the daguerreotype camera, is known as an art of re-creating the reality of a three-dimensional object. In the stereo photography, by using two cameras positioned laterally a predetermined distance apart, two pictures of the same object are taken. A three-dimensional, stereo image of the object can be formed by viewing the two pictures in a manner that observer""s right and left eye observe corresponding right and left picture. Stereo photography is an excellent method of making and viewing three-dimensional images because people can perceive real three-dimensional configuration by using the stereoscopic vision that a human being possesses naturally.
Furthermore, the two pictures necessary to produce a stereo photography can be easily generated with a computer based upon object image data, such as object distance and three-coordinate data obtained by a three-coordinate measuring machine or by an AF device. Stereo photography is not without its problems either.
For instance, viewing two pictures to form a stereo image requires considerable skill and concentration because each eye must concentrate on each picture independently. Also, it takes a considerable amount of time to form a three-dimensional image in observer""s brain. And, eye positioning for viewing the two pictures must be accurate or a stereo image cannot be formed.
Another major problem with stereo photography is that only one person can view a stereo image at a time, and a group of people cannot share in the viewing of a photograph at the same time, like is possible with conventional photography.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned problems of conventional three-dimensional image making apparatuses.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a three-dimensional image making apparatus that can easily form a three-dimensional image with reality on a recording medium and can form a three-dimensional image that a plurality of persons can view at the same time.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable and easily manufacturable recording medium on which three-dimensional image can be easily formed.
Objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved in accordance with embodiments of the present invention with a three-dimensional image making apparatus, including: an image input device configured to obtain image information of the object; an object distance processing device to obtain object distance information and an object distance of the object; a printer configured to print an object image of the object and to form a relief configuration of the object; and an information-processing device configured to control the printer to print the object image based upon the image information and to form the relief configuration, superimposed on the object image, based upon the object distance information.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the information processing device may compress the object distance information so that compression rate of the object distance information is increased as the object distance increases, and controls the printer to form the relief configuration based upon the compressed object distance information.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the object distance processing device may obtain object distance information relating to object distance at each pixel of the image, and the information processing device may process the object distance information at each pixel so that the relief configuration is emphasized according to spatial frequency at the pixel, and control the printer to form the relief configuration based upon the processed object distance information.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the information processing device may process the object distance information at each pixel so that the relief configuration is emphasized according to a spatial frequency at the pixel, and controls the printer to form the relief configuration based upon the processed object distance information.
Objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved in accordance with embodiments of the present invention with a printing material, including: a substrate layer; a blister ink layer being blistered by applying light or heat, the blister ink layer forming the relief configuration according to applied quantity of light or heat; and a printing layer on which the image is printed, wherein the substrate layer, the blister ink layer and the printing layer are piled up in turn.
Objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved in accordance with embodiments of the present invention with a printing material, including: a substrate layer; a blister ink layer, which has been already blistered, being shrunk by applying light or heat, the blister ink layer forming relief configuration according to applied quantity of light or heat; and a printing layer on which the image is printed, wherein the substrate layer, the blistered ink layer and the printing layer are piled up in turn.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the printer includes a device to print the image, on said printing layer, and a device to form the relief configuration by blistering or shrinking the blistered ink layer through applying light or heat, and the information-processing device, controls the printer to superimpose the relief configuration on the object image, based upon the object distance information obtained by the object distance processing device.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the printer includes a printing device for printing an image and a relief-forming device for forming relief configuration, independently.